I want to add z-wave to my HASS. I have read some of the threads on this forum and looked at the integration page. I also watched a couple of youtube videos such as this one and another.
Reading the threads indicates I should purchase another RPi and set it up to work with my HASS RPi. But the videos don’t show this and one discusses OpenZwave.
Does anyone have a step by step getting-started tutorial? the Integrations page has lots of information like “The ozwdaemon installed and running in your network.”. This is great, but I am looking for a step by step.
This page indicates it is plug and play with my existing system.
And how does Zwave2MQTT figure in to this. I have MQTT set up in HASS running my existing wifi devices nicely.
I’ve learned that there are 3 ZWave possibilities that exist for Home Assistant.
ZWave2mqtt
Zwave (native homeassistant)
OpenZWave (QT aka OpenZWave beta)
I’m told that number 3 is the future direction for Home Assistant, so that’s the one I’ve gone for. It has the advantage that it uses version 1.6 of OpenZWave (the original Zwave integration for Home Assistant is based on version 1.4). However, it is still a work in progress - it’s not yet fully integrated into the Home Assistant UI, but relies on the OZW-Admin application to control ZWave devices.
If you’ve already got the Mosquitto add-on installed and running, then you can just add the OpenZWave beta and be off to the races.
I was running the native zwave integration in HA. It’s very stable, but I wanted to switch to the new OpenZWave (ozw, whatever) to decouple HA from Zwave. While I like some things about the new ozw beta, I’d recommend a little caution as not everything works, and I had to switch back and rebuild my zwave network back to the current native HA integration.
My problem was that my smart locks got dumb. Events were just locked/unlocked with no usable event data. I lost what method was used to lock/unlock (code, manual, zwave), what user code was used, and all sorts of other data that I use to drive automation. The ozw admin interface over VNC is just bizarre to me and feels very 1995. Why not just a simple web UI? Functionally, everything else worked great though, and I am excited for when it get’s more polish.
My 2 cents is to stick with the native integration unless you have the patience and willingness to beta test the integration with your house.
Because fishwaldo likes QT and uses it also for ozw daemon itself. A rare choice especially for open source projects. But as fishwaldo is the one who drives this, it’s his to decide.
I switched to OpenZwave, but have stability issues. Prior (native HA zwave) I had no issues with turning off 6 lights at the same time. If I do now, some will remain on
